Actress Sam Buttery has all the power in Netflix’s new mythological black comedy series Kaos. Starring alongside Doctor Jekyll’s Suzy Izzard and Never Let Me Go star Ché, Buttery plays one of The Fates; three trans non-binary, immortal Gods of desire.
They “know everything,” they “see everything,” and they have Jeff Goldblum’s Zeus in the palm of their hands. The new series from The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell – which is receiving rave reviews – sees the three Fates (Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho) deciding the destinies of all of humankind. Plot twist: they are dictating too the lives of the most commanding beings in Greek mythology.
So when Zeus notices a wrinkle on his forehead, sending him spiralling into a paranoid, vengeful mid-life crisis, you can bet that The Fates are behind it.
“Our characters are just a bit bored,” laughs Buttery. The trio live in a cave on the outskirts of the underworld, where they’re tasked with processing humans into the realm of the dead. This is Greek mythology told through a thoroughly modern lens: the cave looks more like Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club than a supernatural portal. “I think that’s what Charlie, the creator, was trying to get at to be honest,” Buttery confirms.
As a trans actress, playing the bored, sassy and most importantly, all powerful Atropos was a gratifying experience.
“Existing and operating as a trans person, you can often feel quite immobilised or powerless because I suppose the fate – pardon the pun – of your life is discussed in an abstract setting, like the government,’ Buttery tells PinkNews.
“So when it comes to playing parts, I think I enjoy and thrive most on enacting that part of me that is powerful.”
The Fates are the only three characters in the show who know the ending already. And with a cast stacked with Hollywood talent like Goldblum, Billie Piper, and Janet McTeer, “it’s just good to be the [character] in the room with power, the one that’s got the most agency”.
It’s unsurprising that Covell gave the show’s three most quietly formidable roles to trans stars (plus, there’s trans-masculine actor Misia Butler playing Caeneus, one of the underworld’s most pivotal players). Covell themself is non-binary and, Buttery says, was at a similar point in their journey to Buttery when filming took place in 2022.
“It was really great to have everyone in a space where you could feel differently from day to day,” says Buttery, who began filming using they/them pronouns and, when returning to set for reshoots, had decided to switch to she/her.
“Charlie then changed the pronouns of the character in the script to now align with the pronouns that I was using,” the Wreck actress shares. Even Kaos’ co-director, Georgi Banks-Davies, made a daily point of asking pronouns, in case anyone had decided to change theirs. “I just think that is just such a gift to have someone like that,” says Buttery.
While figuring out her own pronouns, it was “truly a joy” to be around her “hilarious, generous” co-star Suzy Izzard, who plays Lachy, the “no shade – older, wiser sister” to Atropos.
“It was really nice as well from a personal perspective to see somebody living that bravely in their authenticity,” says Buttery. At the time of filming, Suzy was exclusively known still as Eddie Izzard, but was using she/her pronouns.
“Sometimes people would use he instead of she, and Suzy would say: ‘Oh, sorry, didn’t they let you know? I’ve been promoted. I’m now ‘she’,” Buttery reveals, sharing that Izzard inspired her with a witty response to anyone who ever approaches with a question about how she’s presenting.
“She was just so gracious with it. She’s been great at equipping people with great phrases. I used it myself, but when people come up to her and say, ‘Why are you wearing women’s clothes?’ She said, ‘They’re not women’s clothes. They’re my clothes.’ It’s such a good comeback.”
Buttery would love the chance to work with Izzard and their fellow Fates star Ché again. It’s not an impossibility; given that the history and literature surrounding Greek mythology is so extensive, there is plenty of room for Kaos season two.
“Nothings been confirmed,” the actress promises. She’s optimistic that if there is, she’ll be involved. “It’s lovely because I’m immortal. So if there is a series two, I can’t be killed off’,” she jokes. Her hope is that the second season, if it comes to fruition, will focus more on Butler as Caeneus; in this season, he’s involved in one of the show’s leading romance plots.
“My hope is that… he becomes a sort of hero of the series. I just think a trans guy hero? He’s so handsome. It’s a gorgeous story. It would be really fab, aside from anything else.”
Just a few years ago, a show like Kaos would have made headlines for having three trans characters in The Fates’ position. Instead, viewers are just focussed on how great the series is. For Sam Buttery though, the significance is still there.
“It’s a really cool opportunity to be telling mythical stories through voices that have often been marginalised,” she says. “Sometimes things can feel so Western centric and cis, heterosexual centric that we lose that in history. It’s good to look back and go, ‘It was a really diverse and trans experience’,” even back then.
Kaos is streaming now on Netflix.
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